Dragon Shire Overview

Dragon Shire is one of several maps available to players in Heroes of the Storm. A 5v5 battleground, this map has a mystical, almost Night Elf feel. Dragon Shire is a three lane map design that we traditionally see in Heroes of the Storm.

What differentiate this map from others is the two Dragon Shrines found in both the top and bottom lanes of the map. Teams will fight to take control of these shrines and ultimately gain control of the powerful Dragon Knight, found in the middle lane. The Dragon Knight is a powerful tool that can be used to level your enemies and ultimately win the game.

Primary Map Objectives

Control the Shrines

The main focus of the Dragon Shire map is to control both the shrines of the Sun and the Moon. Doing this will activate the Dragon Knight statue. Both shrines need to be under your teams control before you may activate the Dragon Knight.

When the game begins, the shrines will not be spawned. About 1:15 after the games begin, a warning will pop up indicating the shrines are about to spawn. You will receive a 30 second warning before the event, with a count down timer. After the shrines have spawned they can be claimed for your team.

Indicators for shrine control will appear under each team's UI. If your team controls a shrine, it will appear under you team's bar and vice versa. To capture a shrine you or your teammates must stand inside the capture circle. This is noted by a blue or red glow on the ground. The more allies that stand inside the circle, the faster the shrine will be captured.

Enemies standing inside the circle will negate an ally's capture. If there are more enemies than allies, the enemy team will slowly capture the shrine. If a shrine is uncontrolled, your team must fill both bars with your team's color. If the shrine is already captured by the opposing team, the shrine's bar must fall below the halfway mark for that team to lose control of the shrine.

Once both shrines have been captured by the team, the Dragon Knight statue in the center of the map will become powered. To activate the statue, the player will need to go to it, right click it, and channel for roughly four seconds. Any interruptions will cancel the channeling. Once the channeling is complete, the statue will activate and that player will take on the form of the Dragon Knight.

The Dragon Knight

The player that channels the Dragon Knight statue successfully will become the Dragon Knight. Your character will be transformed into a lean, mean, dragon fighting machine. Your abilities will also change. The Dragon Knights abilities are as follows:

Secondary Map Objectives

Dragon Shire hosts five mercenary camps and a single watchtower, one less than other Heroes of the Storm maps.

Mercenary Camps

As mentioned above, players will find five mercenary camps on this map. All three mercenary types are present here:

Knights - Located on each team's side, between the forts.

Siege Golems -Located on each team's side, between the forts.

Grave Golem – Located just below the Obelisk of the Moon.

Watchtowers

The single watchtower found on Dragon Shire is located below the Dragon Alter, at the very center of the map. This watchtower will provide the team who controls is with vision of most of the paths through the forest, allowing the team to keep tabs on enemy movements.

Dragon Shire: How to Play

The main focus of the Dragon Shire map is, not surprisingly, to capture the Dragon Shrines and activate the Dragon Knight. Competition is fierce and capturing both shrines simultaneously. Teams should divide into two teams to dominate the shrines. Currently, most teams prefer to dispatch two heroes to each shrine and leave one hero at the Dragon Statue. This allows the player at the statue to activate it when the shrines are captured, or disrupt enemy heroes from doing the same.

While getting control of the shrines is important, teams cannot forget to level their hero. Getting back into the lanes and wiping out enemy minions to earn XP is all important. Heroes that are underpowered will not be able to take on enemies who have gained more levels.

After the Dragon Knight has been activated, your team should come together and push the lane that currently has the weakest defense. Remember, the Dragon Knight does extra damage to buildings and can wipe them out quickly. While the Dragon Knight has awesome power, he is not unbeatable. Do not head into enemy territory without reinforcements.

If the enemy team manages to activate the Dragon Knight, you must take immediate action. He can do serious damage and can easily dominate the game. Collect team mates and converge on the Dragon Knight to take him down together and quickly. The faster the Dragon Knight goes down, the less damage he can do.

Please note that this is a generally accepted strategy. Do not be afraid to improvise and play to the strengths of your team. How you win is, ultimately, not important.

About The Author

Amunet, also fondly known as Memtron, is an organic life form best known for its ongoing obsession with Blizzard Entertainment's numerous properties. To that end, Amu has authored hundreds (thousands?) of the most popular World of Warcraft guides, editorials, and Top 10 lists on the planet. When not gaming and writing, Amu is busy chasing after her three children in a perpetual loop of ongoing disaster.